SPELL Act

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 4389 To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to provide additional amounts of loan forgiveness to teachers of English learners, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES SEPTEMBER 18, 2019 Mr. LANGEVIN (for himself, Mr. ESPAILLAT, and Mr. GRIJALVA) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and Labor A BILL To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to provide additional amounts of loan forgiveness to teachers of English learners, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Supporting Providers 4 of English Language Learning Act’’ or the ‘‘SPELL Act’’. 5 SEC. 2. TEACHERS OF ENGLISH LEARNERS. 6 (a) LOAN FORGIVENESS FOR TEACHERS.—Section 7 428J(c)(3) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 8 U.S.C. 1078–10(c)(3)) is amended— 9 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:34 Sep 21, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4389.IH H4389 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •HR 4389 IH (1) in the paragraph heading by striking 1 ‘‘MATHEMATICS, SCIENCE, OR SPECIAL EDUCATION’’ 2 and inserting ‘‘MATHEMATICS, SCIENCE, SPECIAL 3 EDUCATION, OR ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION’’; 4 (2) in subparagraph (A)(ii) by striking ‘‘and’’ 5 at the end; 6 (3) in subparagraph (B)(iii) by striking the pe- 7 riod at the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 8 (4) by adding at the end the following: 9 ‘‘(C) an elementary school or secondary 10 school teacher— 11 ‘‘(i) who meets the requirements of 12 subsection (b); 13 ‘‘(ii) whose qualifying employment for 14 purposes of such subsection is as a teacher 15 of English learners (as that term is defined 16 in section 8101 of the Elementary and 17 Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 18 U.S.C. 7801)) whose primary responsibility 19 is to teach such learners; and 20 ‘‘(iii) who, as certified by the chief ad- 21 ministrative officer of the public or non- 22 profit private elementary school or sec- 23 ondary school in which the borrower is em- 24 ployed, or, in the case of a teacher who is 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:34 Sep 21, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4389.IH H4389 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •HR 4389 IH employed by an educational service agency, 1 as certified by the chief administrative offi- 2 cer of such agency, is teaching English 3 learners who correspond with the bor- 4 rower’s training and has demonstrated 5 knowledge and teaching skills in the con- 6 tent areas of the elementary school or sec- 7 ondary school curriculum that the bor- 8 rower is teaching.’’. 9 (b) LOAN CANCELLATION FOR TEACHERS.—Section 10 460(c)(3) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 11 1087j(c)(3)) is amended— 12 (1) in the paragraph heading by striking 13 ‘‘MATHEMATICS, SCIENCE, OR SPECIAL EDUCATION’’ 14 and inserting ‘‘MATHEMATICS, SCIENCE, SPECIAL 15 EDUCATION, OR ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION’’; 16 (2) in subparagraph (A)(ii) by striking ‘‘and’’ 17 at the end; 18 (3) in subparagraph (B)(iii) by striking the pe- 19 riod at the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 20 (4) by adding at the end the following: 21 ‘‘(C) an elementary school or secondary 22 school teacher— 23 ‘‘(i) who meets the requirements of 24 subsection (b); 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:34 Sep 21, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4389.IH H4389 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •HR 4389 IH ‘‘(ii) whose qualifying employment for 1 purposes of such subsection is as a teacher 2 of English learners (as that term is defined 3 in section 8101 of the Elementary and 4 Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 5 U.S.C. 7801)) whose primary responsibility 6 is to teach such learners; and 7 ‘‘(iii) who, as certified by the chief ad- 8 ministrative officer of the public or non- 9 profit private elementary school or sec- 10 ondary school in which the borrower is em- 11 ployed, or, in the case of a teacher who is 12 employed by an educational service agency, 13 as certified by the chief administrative offi- 14 cer of such agency, is teaching English 15 learners who correspond with the bor- 16 rower’s training and has demonstrated 17 knowledge and teaching skills in the con- 18 tent areas of the elementary school or sec- 19 ondary school curriculum that the bor- 20 rower is teaching.’’. 21 SEC. 3. APPLICABILITY. 22 The amendments made by section 1 shall take effect 23 on the date of the enactment of this Act and shall apply 24 with respect to individuals who are eligible to receive 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:34 Sep 21, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4389.IH H4389 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 5 •HR 4389 IH teacher loan forgiveness under section 428J of the Higher 1 Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1078–10) or teacher 2 loan cancellation under section 460 of such Act (20 U.S.C. 3 1087j) after such date. 4 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:34 Sep 21, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H4389.IH H4389 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS